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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.Nadia Fariz Halim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <nadia.fariz03@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 04:54:54 -0400
Subject: CRY FOR HELP?
Dear sir,
I am Mrs.Nadia Fariz Halim,wife to Mr.Fariz Halim a Malaysian farmer and politician.My husband was murdered in Malaysia in 2009 by loyalists hatchet men from the ruling political party in the country.After his death,our family treasure and assets have being seized by the government.stricter measures placed to make life miserable for me. Resultantly, I have relocate to a remote location to escape the attacks from the government.I write you because of our last family deposit in a bank in Malaysia.I have discussed with the manager who promised to assist me have the money out of Malaysian bank asked me to present someone outside Malaysia to receive this fund for us.also,the bank said i need to change the account name from my family name to your name so that the government will not dictate it..Please reply this email so i can direct you to the bank for expedite the process.
Thank you.
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